The Maya and Climate Change: Human-Environmental Relationships in the Classic Period Lowlands(Interdisciplinary Approaches to Premodern Societies and Environments)

The Classic Maya civilization, which thrived between 200-950 CE in eastern Mesoamerica, faced many environmental challenges, including those wrought by climate change. The ability of Maya communities to adapt their resource conservation practices played a crucial role in allowing them to survive for as long as they did. Researchers today understand that the breakdown of Classic Maya society was the result of many long-term processes. Yet the story that continues to grip the public imagination is that the Maya civilization mysteriously "collapsed". The Maya and Climate Change draws on archaeological, environmental, and historical datasets to provide a comprehensive, yet accessible, overview of Classic Maya human-environment relationships, including how communities addressed the challenges of climatic and demographic changes. It works to shift the focus from the Classic Maya "collapse" to the multiple examples of adaptive flexibility that allowed Pre-Colonial Maya communities to thrive in a challenging natural environment for over seven centuries. Although the Classic Maya civilization did not leave behind much in the way of secret environmental knowledge for us to rediscover, one of the critical lessons that can be learned from studying the Classic Maya is the importance of socio-ecological adaptability--the ability and willingness to change cultural practices to address long-term challenges.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Chapter 1: Shifting the Focus Chapter 2: From Camera Lucida to Lidar: A Brief History of Maya Archaeology Chapter 3: Forests Chapter 4: Fields Chapter 5: Water Chapter 6: Stone Chapter 7: Collapse and Resilience Chapter 8: Looking Forward References

About the Author :
Kenneth E. Seligson is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Review :
An encyclopedic treatise of ancient Maya environmental archaeology and paleoenvironmental science...I highly recommend The Maya and Climate Change to both scholars and students interested in environmental archaeology and the Maya. As a readable, afordable, short, and comprehensive monograph, this would be a great textbook for a Maya-focused, environmental archaeology course. This valuable contribution to the feld will no doubt become a classic reference on ancient Maya ecology. This book provides a thorough, up-to-date, and well-written introduction to the ecology of the Maya civilization, especially during the Classic period...Excellent for courses on, and readers interested in, Mesoamerican archaeology, human ecology, and studies of ancient civilizations... Highly recommended. Organized by topics that integrate a picture of the ancient Maya, The Maya and Climate Change provides a well-structured view of the region from southern Copan to northern Mayapan, while necessarily considering the major sites of the Central Lowlands that surround Tikal. This volume promises a comprehensive and accessible review. It is well referenced (in footnotes) and has a useful index. In looking for a general text that provides an overview of the Maya and addresses directly issues of resources of the environment, Seligson's coverage is fair and balanced, examining the flexibility and adaptive strategies that reveal the resilience of the ancient pre-colonial Maya. As an introduction for students, this book will provide a firm basis for discussion, for building interdisciplinary teams, it will provide a provocative foundation for debate.